


Music and Lyrics

by saucyjackfan



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-18
Updated: 2011-11-20
Packaged: 2017-10-26 05:29:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/279251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saucyjackfan/pseuds/saucyjackfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles moves in next door to Erik. They don't get on well, disagreeing over lifestyles. They begin communicating with music. It goes from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> All characters belong to Marvel. I own none of this. Just playing around in their sandbox. Not for profit, just enjoyment.
> 
> So far, several of the characters from First Class appear in this, but most are only mentioned, rather than playing a large part in the story.

PROLOGUE  
With the death of his mother and stepfather, Charles Francis Xavier finally managed to escape the mausoleum that the family mansion had become. The Xavier property was a wood-panelled and marble shrine to a long dead father, and to the loveless marriage that his mother subsequently rushed into as if she couldn’t bear to be alone for a moment. It was as if she was trying to erase the very memory of his and his sister’s father, and eventually the years of excessive drinking that began within six months of the funeral succeeded where the rushed marriage failed. Unfortunately, this erosion also included any love she had for her children, so that when it came to her death, Charles shed barely a tear over her coffin, instead feeling a guilt–tinged sense of relief that he could perhaps finally move on with his life.

So this how he came to move into one of the homes of The Wyngarde Estate in the City of London. He said to everyone that he picked it only for its convenience, as it was near to the research facility that he had recently received a post with, and had no idea of its history, the importance of its architecture, nor of who else lived there. He would never admit to anyone, that he was also drawn to it by the view from his living area that overlooked the nearby lake – the only thing he did genuinely love about the Xavier Mansion was its private lake. He would soon come to regret the decision to purchase without at least checking out his next-door neighbour beforehand however. He would regret this decision not long after the party that said next-door neighbour held within his first week of living there.

It started innocently enough, with the vibrant sounds of flamenco music accompanied by the peal of laughter and the clink of glasses reaching Charles’s ears in the mid-afternoon on the Friday of his first week. If it had stayed at that level, he would have been perfectly fine. But as the evening approached, the music got louder, switching up to a pounding drum and bass beat, the laughter became more raucous, and the clinks morphed into smashes – always accompanied by a cheer, of course. When the fireworks started at around midnight, he almost lost it. The only thing that stopped him from marching over and letting rip was the Xavier decorum that had been bred into him from an early age. He instead resigned himself to a sleepless night, and used the time to catch up on some important reading for his post as a senior researcher at The Sebastian Shaw Centre for Genetic Study.

Saturday morning came, and with only three hours of sleep under his belt, Charles’s first stop was the coffee shop on the square at the centre of his estate. He was due to take his little sister Raven shopping for an outfit for her debut as the keyboard player with her new band, which was a few weeks away, though why she wanted him there was a mystery to him, as she always said that he had the taste of an old professor, circa nineteen-fifty-seven. In fact, she had recently taken to calling him Professor X, which she thought was absolutely hilarious. The problem was, all their other friends had taken their cue from her, and had started doing the same thing.

If he had been properly awake, he would have noticed the man in front of him in the queue a lot earlier. Instead he looked up sharply at the sound of a deep, slightly accented voice as the man ordered his coffee, and stared straight into the most unusual eyes he had ever seen. They were not quite blue, grey or green, but some unique and alluring combination of the three. They combined with the most beautiful shade of red-gold hair he had ever seen, and took his breath clean away. If he had been properly awake he would also have noticed that the man had been surreptitiously checking him out the entire time they had been waiting to order, and that by looking up at that exact moment he had caught him in the act. Usually this is when Charles, when feeling himself, would have launched into his patented “groovy mutation” speech. But without the caffeine and sugar fix he so desperately needed to get his brain cells working as they should be, he could do nothing but stare dumbly, a slight flush colouring his cheeks as he desperately tried to remember how to breathe. Which the other man took as discomfort rather than fluster, and made him turn back to the barista and scrabble desperately for his coffee in embarrassment, before positively sprinting out of the coffee shop. By the time Charles wrestled the speech centre of his brain into submission, he was long gone, and all he could do was order and pay for his coffee.

Little did either them know at that time that they would see each other again in the not too distant future.


	2. Songs Number One and Number Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some swearing in this chapter. Thought I'd mention it just in case anyone was offended by it.
> 
> I also don't own the lyrics, or songs used in this chapter at all. I just love listening to their music.

During his second week of living in the house, his next-door neighbour had three parties, all as equally noisy as that first one. After the second one, Charles had actually ventured round to complain, but got no answer to his repeated knocking. He eventually found out by quizzing another neighbour, a school teacher called Moira, that his neighbour was a famous and successful engineer from Germany called Erik. He was very rich, and owned his own civil engineering company. He also never arose before lunchtime at least, which explained why he had yet to set eyes on him, and also why he never answered the door when Charles knocked.

After a month, although there weren’t as many parties, there was always loud music playing until the early hours. Charles dealt with it as best he could, mainly with copious amounts of caffeine in all its forms, a coping mechanism that Raven called “extreme caffeine therapy”. But one morning after a particularly rough night listening to some random rock band blasting through the walls (I read your words, I read your banner of hope, well I kick my way in it seems to piss you all off), he snapped and decided to turn the tables on this mysterious Erik, by playing some of his own music really loudly, knowing it would probably wake him up. He thought long and hard about what to play; it needed to be the polar opposite of the rock music that his neighbour seemed to play, and it needed to be loud. He eventually settled on some Starship (Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio). He even went as far as placing the stereo speakers up against the dividing wall in his bedroom, guessing that the floor plans matched, and it would go through into Erik’s bedroom next door. Sure enough, as soon as he started to blast the song, he heard a shout, and a thump that sounded a lot like someone falling out bed. There was silence for a few seconds after that, followed by several doors slamming, and a series of loud knocks on Charles’s door. He thought about ignoring it for a second, but that wasn’t in his nature, so he went to the door to answer it, and opened it up to stare into the hypnotic eyes of the man from the coffee shop, albeit with a wild-eyed stare at this very moment. There was a flash of surprise in the eyes of the man for a second, before he went straight into a rant about the music.

“Really? Is there any fucking need to play music this loud in the morning? And could you not at least put something decent on?” he snarled.

“Excuse me? What about that awful racket you played last night? At two o’ clock in the bloody morning, may I remind you? And for your information, it’s eleven a.m. It’s not my flipping fault that you’re still in bed nursing a hangover! It’s a perfectly reasonable time to start playing music. Now if you’ll excuse me, some people actually have to work for a living.” Charles replied incredulously, colour beginning to creep up his face.

The other man opened his mouth to respond,but barely managed to get a syllable out before Charles carried on.

“Oh and by the way, there’s nothing wrong with Starship!” Charles added, before shutting the door in the man’s face, leaving him staring dumbfounded at the dark wood for a second, before swearing under his breath about “Poncy Englishmen” as he returned to his own house.

And that is how Charles and Erik first met properly. Not the greatest first impression really, and it was going to get worse before it got better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The random rock music is Rancid - the lyrics are from "Bloodclot", from their album "Life Won't Wait". The Starship song that Charles replies with is "We Built This City" from their album "Knee Deep in the Hoopla".
> 
> Hope that the dialogue isn't too bad - that was my issue when I wrote when I was younger. Any criticism or pointers welcome. :)


	3. Songs Number Three and Number Four

Mercifully, Erik seemed to get the message, and for the next few days there was no loud music at night, and no loud parties. Charles thought he was in heaven, and felt calm and rested for the first time since his mother’s funeral. Two weeks passed without a peep from his neighbour’s house. He hadn’t seen Erik at all after that morning, and was starting to wonder if he had been harsh in his retaliation. He even toyed with the idea of going round and apologizing. After all, they were neighbours, and should learn to live next to each other amicably.

These amicable feelings lasted right until the moment that Erik blasted something else out. It was around three a.m. on a Saturday morning, and Charles was startled awake by some pounding beat that felt like it was reaching into his skull and ripping out the synapses (Teeth, grip, razor sharp. Bites hi-power, tear you apart). By the morning, Charles was slightly manic, with only two hours of sleep. There was no way he was apologising. In fact, the first thing he did when he got up was move his speaker back against the wall before looking through his music collection for the perfect rebuttal (Raven, when she met him later, would argue that he had lost his mind). He decided that yodelling and rapping was the best retaliation, and laughed gleefully as he pressed play (High on the hill with the lonely goatherd. Layee odelayee odelay heehoo. Yodel back with the girl and goatherd. Layee odelayee odeloh). He heard a strangled scream this time, followed by several thumps on the wall, and then silence. He thought that perhaps he had finally made his point, and that this would be the end of it. He was very wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The songs used in this part are Piranha by The Prodigy from their album Take Me To The Hospital, and Wind It Up by Gwen Stefani from her album The Sweet Escape.


	4. Interlude and Song Number Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a bit more swearing in this chapter again, in case anybody has a problem with it (Me, I swear like a trooper).
> 
> I've tried to break part this up into several paragraphs, as it was originally one big chunk of text. Not sure if I've overdone it now though. Hope it's passable.

Like the last time that Charles played his own music, the next few days passed in relative silence. Soon it was the weekend, and the night of Ravens’ debut. She was the keyboard player in a new band that specialised in electronic music. At the moment, Double Rainbow Bitches, as they were called, played mainly covers, but were in the process of adding their own original pieces to their set. They were playing in a hipster bar not far from Charles’s estate called The Pink Unicorn. Charles had never been in there, but was making the effort this night for his sister. He even took her advice about clothes for once, and was dressed in a much more modern style than he would usually pick. Instead of his usual comfy knitwear, and as Raven succinctly put it, his “old fogey” suits, he was wearing a dark grey pinstriped suit, with an open-collared black shirt. It was one of the first times in recent months that his and Raven’s friends didn’t call him Professor X. In fact, the lead singer of the band, a petite young woman named Angel, actually mentioned the word “smoking” to Raven (who both laughed and grimaced at the same time).

Charles arrived at the bar around an hour before the band was due to play, and spent most of that time backstage with them, helping to calm their nerves, and keeping their spirits up. He eventually left them to prepare, and slipped to the bar to order a pint. As he turned to look at the stage at the back of the bar whilst taking a sip of his drink, he failed to notice that Erik was also there, and was openly staring at him. The barman, Janos, that had been serving Erik his drink, had to literally tap him on the shoulder to regain his attention. It was clear that on this occasion it was Erik’s breath that had been stolen away. Unfortunately, Charles was once again oblivious to all this, as at that very moment, the band made their way on stage to begin their performance.

For the entire performance, Charles’s eyes were glued to Raven as she played. He loved the way that her eyes lit up as her fingers caressed the keys, and the way that she positively glowed as she sang along, harmonising with Angel, and Sean, the rhythm guitarist. He felt that she looked her happiest at these moments, and revelled in them; Raven hadn’t always had the best time of it as they were growing up.

This was mainly because she was a real daddy’s girl. When their father died, Raven was the first to lose the affection of their mother, as she reminded her too much of her dead husband. Although their step-father Kurt wasn’t particularly horrid to them, he was cold and distant. The problem was that he really did love their mother, and it was quite obvious from the first days of their marriage that she didn’t love him back. He would have said that he didn’t mean to distance himself from them, but he just couldn’t help it, that they reminded him too much of the man that still had a hold on their mother’s heart.

And as for Cain, their older step-brother, he was a different story altogether. His mother had died when he was young, and from then on it had only been him and his father. He resented the intrusion of Charles and Raven, and their mother into their lives. He therefore took his frustrations out on them both as they were younger, and weaker. Charles, even now, thinks he might have been able to forgive Cain for it all, if he hadn’t also hurt Raven in the process.

Eventually Kurt saw what was happening and confronted his son about it. He gave him an ultimatum – either stop it, or leave. So Cain left, or was sent away to boarding school at least. They never saw him again, not even for the funeral of his father, and the reading of their parents’ wills. Kurt obviously still loved him deeply, as he left him well provided for. Charles would always be grateful that Kurt stopped Cain from torturing them, but it also made him even colder towards them, as he seemed to blame them for the loss of his son. It wasn’t long before they were both shipped off to boarding school too. At least they were placed in schools near each other, so they still had each other to turn to.

So with all that in their past, it was wonderful to see Raven so happy up on the stage. He just couldn’t stop himself from grinning like a loon, an expression that didn’t go unnoticed by Erik, who was still stood by the bar, watching him intently. As usual, if Charles had looked round at that very moment, he would have seen the look of slight disappointment that graced Erik’s features, but he didn’t, concentrating instead on cheering and clapping loudly as the band took their leave of the stage at the end of their performance.

When the band had disappeared behind the stage, Charles turned back towards the bar for another drink, and finally noticed Erik stood there, eyeing him. He smiled vaguely when he got over his surprise, and slowly sauntered over, thinking that it wouldn’t be polite to ignore him. As he got nearer, Erik smiled back at him, brightly, and Charles inexplicably felt himself go slightly weak at the knees. It took all his strength not to stumble, and make it over to the bar safely.

“You must be very proud of her” Erik stated, as Charles drew level.

“I'm sorry, proud of who?” asked Charles with confusion.“Your girlfriend – the keyboard player.” Erik elaborated.

“Oh. She’s not my girlfriend, she’s my little sister. Her name is Raven.” Charles blushed. He might have been imagining it, but he thought that Erik’s smile got even brighter then.

“She’s very good, actually they all are. I really liked their version of Strangelove. How long have they been playing together?” Erik continued, after taking a sip from his drink, his eyes fixed intently on Charles.

“They’ve been playing together for a couple of months, but this is their first actual performance. I'm very proud of her, and I'm glad you liked them.” responded Charles, beaming.

And with that, Charles found himself chatting away happily to Erik. It was hard to believe that just a week ago he had almost felt like killing him. They actually seemed to have a lot in common, including both of them quizzing Moira about the other. Erik even put forward his idea that secretly, she was a government agent, rather than a mild-mannered Scottish biology teacher, due to the fact she knew intimate details of everyone who lived within five miles of them. Charles found himself laughing properly for the first time since he’d moved into the house, and didn’t even notice when the band made their way back out from behind the stage and began to mingle with the staff and customers. He eventually excused himself to use the men’s room, which is the moment Raven picked to go talk to Erik.

“So, another of Charles’s friends that I haven’t been introduced to - I'm Raven, his sister. Has he been boring you with his rants about his obnoxious next-door neighbour too, or is it just me that gets to see that side of him?” she laughed mischievously, only noticing the change in his demeanour a second later.

“I wouldn’t know, we’re not really friends.” He replied brusquely, draining his drink and striding swiftly away, and out of the bar, leaving Raven stood there looking slightly stunned, waiting as Charles made his way back.

“Oh, did Erik leave then?” he asked, looking slightly dejected.

“That was Erik? Shit! You didn’t tell me he was gorgeous, Charles.” shouted Raven, slightly louder than was necessary.

“Is he? I hadn’t really noticed.” he mumbled.

“Bollocks-of course you noticed! He’s exactly your type – all hard lines and muscle, and ginger to boot! And this is the part where I need to apologize for accidentally cock-blocking you there. I may have mentioned that you think he’s obnoxious. But that wouldn’t have happened if you’d told me what he looks like. Don’t worry- I’ll make it up to you somehow.” she confessed, looking at Charles’s horror-stricken reaction.

“Don’t worry? Ha! You know that he’s going to make my life hell now, playing music again at ungodly hours? And I thought we might actually be able to get on civilly. Shit.” he moaned, holding his head in his hands.

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad, bro, you’ll see. And if it is, well then, I’ll think of something. Now, me and the rest of the band are going on to a night club. Are you going to come along? It’ll cheer you up?” Raven asked, trying to change the subject, suddenly looking incredibly guilty.

“Yeah, I think I’ll call it a night thanks. I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow; I’ll see you later. You really were brilliant, sis. I'm so very proud of you, and I love you.” Charles responded, giving her a hug and a quick peck on the cheek, before making his way out of the bar, and home.

Sure enough, when he got back on to his own street, he could hear the music before he even got near to his house (You know you’re semi good lookin’, and on the streets again. Oh yeah, you think you’re really cookin’ baby. You better find yourself a friend, my friend).

“Bugger.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The music that Raven's band plays is, in order: Living In America by The Sounds, which is also the title of the album. I’m Not Your Toy by La Roux, from their self-titled album. Much Too Much by Tommy Sparks, from his self-titled album. Strangelove by Depeche Mode, from Music For The Masses. Hey You by Pony Pony Run Run from You Need Pony Pony Run Run. They finish with Daniel by Bat For Lashes, from her album Two Suns.
> 
> The song that Erik plays at the end is Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love by Van Halen, from their self-titled debut album.
> 
> Don't own any of it, of course. Just a fan.


	5. Song Number Six And The Week Of A Thousand Songs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, there's some swearing in this chapter.

Charles started the Sunday morning with a nice bit of Kate Bush (How could you leave me, when I needed to, possess you? I hated you, I loved you too.), but in all fairness, he had tried to apologize to Erik by going round before starting the music. So it was his own fault really; if he hadn’t ignored his knocking again, he wouldn’t have played the song. And this decision started the period that they would both later call the “week of a thousand songs”. On Sunday night, Erik fired the opening salvo by playing the entire back catalogue of Saxon in order (We were strangers in the night, both on separate flights. Strangers in the night going nowhere.), and Charles hit back Monday morning with an entire musical soundtrack (You see, they bring their boys up different in those charming foreign ports. They play peculiar sports, in shiny shirts and tiny shorts.).

Erik’s second strike involved a whole evening dedicated to punk rock (All my collection, adorns my room on bamboo poles. It used to be a little, but a little got more and more. Now I’m craving yours.) and Charles’s response to this was some Eurythmics (Thorn in my side, you know that’s all you’ll ever be. So don’t think you know better, ‘cause that’s what you mean to me.) which earned him a string of expletives through the wall, and gave Charles a smile on his face as he left for work Tuesday morning.

The smile lasted pretty much all day Tuesday, which was a relatively peaceful day at work, culminating in a few drinks in a local pub to celebrate the birthday of one of his colleagues, a Russian researcher known simply as Az (he always said that no one would be able to pronounce the entire Russian name, but Charles had his suspicions that it was more about Az not really liking it that much). It lasted right up until the very moment he put his key in his front door at about ten p.m. on Tuesday night, which is when Erik began to play his music loudly. Charles realised that he’d intentionally waited until he got home to start, which left him with a curious feeling in the pit of his stomach, somewhere between annoyance and pleasure. But this vague feeling of pleasure wasn’t nearly enough to get him through another night of pounding music (We dent, we dope, we choke, we gun, we kill, we stab, we rob, we steal.), even if he had an inkling that maybe Erik was trying to get his attention.

On the Wednesday morning, when it came to his reply, he actually hesitated. Was he right about Erik only doing this now to get his attention? Or was that just wishful thinking? The truth was, he had always been pretty clueless when it came down to relationships, and had been out of action in that department for quite some time. The last guy he dated properly had been in uni, and that had only been a fling. His name had been Logan, and he had worked security on the campus. He had thought that they might have had something more, but Logan had made it quite clear that “he wasn’t in it for the long-haul”, as he put it, and that was the end of that. With the issues with his mother rearing their ugly head again after he graduated, he really hadn’t had an opportunity for anything other than a couple of one night stands since. And even they had dried up in the last year or so. The more he thought about it, the more he convinced himself that he was imagining the attraction, and so he decided to put some music on after all. He picked something bright and cheerful, and one of his favourite songs (‘Cos little Willy, Willy won’t go home. You can’t push Willy round, Willy won’t go). Perhaps it was wishful thinking on the part of Charles that the song would cheer Erik as much as it always did him. It obviously hadn’t due to the shouting that came from the other side of the wall. Charles would have to look some of those words up on Google, because he hadn’t actually heard some of them before. In fact he was pretty sure that some of them might have been in more than one foreign language.

Wednesday night came, and for a while it looked like there was going to be no music at all from Erik. Charles wasn’t sure that he wasn’t actually disappointed by this, as he prepared for bed at around eleven p.m. He was disappointed more than anything that his hunch about Erik’s motivation in playing all that music was not to get his attention; rather, it had been just to annoy him. He settled down to a restless sleep, which didn’t last very long, because Erik then decided to throw another one of his parties. Unfortunately this party didn’t last for just one night - it lasted for over two whole days.

Charles spent both Thursday and Friday in a blur of caffeinated beverages, and even pills. It was a miracle that he got any work done at all, never mind that any of it had made any sense. He hadn’t even the energy or inclination to prepare his usual morning responses to the night-time noise. When Raven came round to visit him on Saturday morning, with plans to have a picnic by the nearby lake she saw the state he was in and resolved to do something about it, even if it meant going round and apologising to Erik for her comments of the other week. With this in mind then, she strode forcefully round to Erik’s front door and began to knock. Charles had warned her that she wouldn’t get a response, so she was taken aback when the front door opened, and she came face to face with Janos, the barman from The Pink Unicorn.

“Hey there Raven, how are you? Wait – do you know Erik? I had no idea.” he asked in thickly accented English.

“Hey Janos. Sorry I can’t really chat right now, but I really need to speak to Erik right now -it’s really important.” she said, smiling sheepishly.

“No worries -catch you later in the week when your band plays at the bar again; you can tell me how you know him then,” he smiled, winking at her, before calling back into the house.“Hey! Magneto! Get your arse moving pronto-someone’s here to see you!”

Raven had a moment to ponder the name Magneto, before Erik came to the door, bleary-eyed, and only wearing a pair of pyjama bottoms that showed off his chiselled torso, and a light dusting of hair that started just below his belly button and reached down below the waistline of his trousers. Charles would have loved to have caught this site, she thought, as Erik eyed her suspiciously.

“Raven, right?” he asked, with a yawn.

“Hi, yeah, right, Charles’s sister, Raven. Glad you remember me, though I suppose it’s hard to forget after what I said last time we met. Which is why I’m here actually. Look, I’m sorry about what I said, really – there’s no need to keep doing this to Charles. He needs to get some sleep, and playing music in the middle of the night is really killing him. So could you stop, please, just for a while, at least, so he can get some rest? I mean, he was bound to get rubbed up the wrong way by it, right?You don’t have to be so inconsiderate all the time,” she pretty much blurted out all at once, barely taking a breath, rendered uncertain by Erik’s intense stare.

With hindsight, that last sentence was one too many, and she’d put her foot in her mouth again, judging from the emotions she saw flickering across Erik’s face briefly, before he became impassive again.Erik continued to stare at her silently for a few seconds before opening his mouth to speak.

“You know what; it’s too early for this. I really don’t care what you and your brother think about me. I was just having a good time with some friends. Sorry if that annoys you both, but I’m not about to start being boring just for him. If he needs more rest, perhaps he should move back to his fucking country manor!”

Raven stared at him open-mouthed for a second, that last sentence making her see red. If Erik had known anything about them or their family, he would never have said that, but Raven was too enraged to see it.

“God, Charles was wrong, you’re much more than just obnoxious- you’re a complete twat!” she seethed, before turning on her heels and going back to Charles’ house.

When Raven had poured herself some coffee in Charles’s kitchen, she decided to sit and contemplate what had just happened. She knew that she had completely botched the apology, and that Charles was going to pay the price for that. She just had to come up with a solution, and when Charles joked about needing a holiday, she hit on the perfect idea – she would swap homes for the week with Charles, so he could get some rest. And while she was here, she could put her second idea into action – she would make Erik believe that Charles had a thing for him (which, from his reaction when he left the bar at the end of her concert, he actually did.), and they would be able to at the least be able to co-exist civilly, and at the most, Charles might actually get laid for once. She knew her plan would work perfectly; after all, she wasn’t a Jane Austen heroine.

Charles readily accepts Raven’s suggestion that he moves into her apartment for the week, though he doesn’t like the idea that she’s going to be living in his house and having to put up with the music instead. This is when Raven points out that her apartment only has one bedroom, and that he is not sleeping on her couch for an entire week. She decides to start listing the reasons that this would be a bad idea; firstly, she likes to walk around naked a lot. Charles stops her right there, suddenly agreeing with her vehemently that she has the right idea, and that they should swap. He even goes and starts packing a week’s worth of clothes and essentials, eager to begin his holiday. He helps Raven gather everything that she needs from her apartment for the week, and then they swap keys – the first thing that Charles does in the apartment is grab a warm shower, pour himself a glass of wine that Raven had helpfully left in her fridge, and start to work on some research. The first thing Raven does in Charles’s house is look through the selection of music she brought along, picking out the music that she’s going to play to Erik, wooing him on behalf of Charles in the process. She then sits back with her copy of Glamour, and waits for Erik to make the first move.

She doesn’t have to wait that long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs are:  
> Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, from The Kick Inside.  
> Saxon's song 747 (Strangers In the Night) from Wheels Of Steel).  
> There! Right There! from Legally Blonde the Musical - this song is in there thanks to an awesome Cherik fanvid on Youtube. Here is the link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJo4i2r0G_M I'm not really into fanvids but this is absolute genius.  
> Beheaded by The Offspring, from their self-titled album.  
> Thorn In My Side By The Eurythmics from their album Revenge.  
> Party Til You Puke by Andrew W.K. from I Get Wet.  
> Little Willy by Sweet, which is a non-album song that does appear on Ballroom Hitz - The Very Best Of Sweet ( the album I have).
> 
> Don't own any of it. This is all for pleasure.


	6. Raven's Songs

The very first night that Raven spent in Charles’s home, Erik began playing some electronic music that would have seemed impenetrable noise to Charles. Luckily, Raven was also a fan of Deadmau5, so had no issues with listening to one of his albums continuously all through the night. Raven danced round her brother’s living room to the music, having readied one of her own C.D.s for in the morning. She didn’t go to bed at all that night, too excited about playing it, and pressed the play button at exactly seven a.m. on Sunday.

And Erik awoke with a hangover to the sound of Pitbull (I know you want me, want me. You know I want cha, want cha). Erik really didn’t appreciate this, and stormed round to Charles’s house, banging furiously on his front door. He soon realised that no-one was going to answer, so he went storming back into his own home, swearing under his breath. If he had been able to see into Charles’s house, he would have seen Raven hiding out at the top of the stairs, trying to muffle her giggles. She knew she was going to have so much fun this week, and that the sleep deprivation would totally be worth it.

In the evening, Erik began to play music again. This time it was Green Day. Raven was actually very glad that Charles wasn’t here to hear it, because the lyrics would have probably sent him over the edge into a murderous rampage, completely overriding his upper-class sensibilities (I’m having trouble trying to sleep. I’m counting sheep but running out). She realised that she needed to “up her game” as Alex, the American exchange student at her college, would say. She therefore decided to skip most of the music she had picked for the week, and forego any subtle wooing she had planned by playing Peaches on Monday morning (I see something in your pants that can’t be real. Don’t hold back, baby, tell me what’s the deal? I gotta move in closer and cop a feel. Oh my, you got something with mass appeal).

It definitely woke Erik with a start, as she heard a loud crash and what sounded like breaking glass through the bedroom wall. Once again she had to stifle her laughs, as she heard him swear in German. She hadn’t studied the language since she was in secondary school, and hadn’t been taught swear words then of course, but she was pretty sure it translated roughly as “Damn it you son of a bitch, what are you trying to do to me?” which convinced her more than ever that Erik did fancy her brother. She knew for sure that Charles was attracted to Erik, because he was obviously her type (unlike Logan, his ex, who Raven still hated for hurting Charles), but she hadn’t been sure about Erik’s feelings until she heard the emotion in his voice. There was no mistaking the frustrated sexual tension heard in there; she’d heard it enough in her own voice whenever she thought about Irene, a bohemian artist and model from her college, and she’s also heard it in the voice of Hank, her best friend, whenever he talked to her about Alex. She was, she thought ruefully, the world’s foremost expert on unrequited emotions thanks to her friends and family.

The next few days follow a similar pattern, with Raven playing rather explicit songs every morning; and every morning, Erik would come over, and bang on the front door. On Thursday, he even swore through the letter box in guttural German. Raven had to Google it this time, but it apparently meant something along the lines of wanting to do something particularly filthy to Charles, perhaps involving handcuffs (She couldn’t be completely certain about the handcuffs part).

Thursday turned out to be the turning point, because when Erik played his music at night, his intentions towards Charles were made completely clear (Help me. Tear Down my reason. Help me. It’s your sex I can smell. Help me. You make me perfect. Help me become somebody else). Raven knew then that it was time to swap back with Charles, and she would just need to play one more song in the morning to seal the deal. She hoped that Charles would truly appreciate the effort she’d gone into this week, what with having to sneak about so that Erik didn’t realise she was there, and that it wasn’t Charles playing the music. Truth be told, as much fun as the back and forth had been, she would be glad to get back to her cosy apartment. Charles’s house was far too big, and she missed her instruments.

So on Friday morning, she finished with a bang, playing another Peaches song (Ooh billionaire, love affair, take you there). This time, Erik practically screamed at the top of his lungs, and raced round, this time begging in English for Charles to let him in. It actually sounded almost as if he was on the verge of tears to Raven, so she knew that her work was done. She simply waited until Erik had returned to his own house, and then she called her brother, making it seem to Charles that she was at the end of tether, and that he had to swap back or she was going to slaughter Erik. Erik even made the swap back particularly easy by leaving in his car ten minutes after she finished her phone conversation.

She reflected that everything had gone absolutely swimmingly as she settled back down in the comfort of her own studio apartment. She really thought that Charles would have a surprise waiting for him when he settled back in to his own home.  
She was definitely correct in that regard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Deadmau5 album is 4x4=12. The other music is I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) by Pitbull from the album Pitbull Starring In Revolution,Brain Stew by Green Day, from Insomniac, Tent In Your Pants by Peaches from Impeach My Bush, Closer by Nine Inch Nails from the album The Downward Spiral and Billionaire by Peaches from her album I Feel Cream.
> 
> As before, I don't own any of the music.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic. Hopefully it's not too atrocious. I actually haven't plucked up the courage to write anything since college. This,and other stories hopefully, are just being used to get into the habit of writing regularly. There's not going to be anything too explicit (no way I'm posting p0rn on my first attempt. To be honest not sure that I've got it in me to write it either.).
> 
> All criticism and advice welcome.
> 
> Not sure how long it's going to take to complete this. I have about half written so far, but still working on it.
> 
> Also, the music at the first party starts with The Gipsy Kings, and ends with Pendulum.


End file.
